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One day I'll get back to writing biology-related posts and shut up about my hip...

For the history on the hip issue and the surgery that has changed my life, see previous posts Hip, Hip, Hurray! and Hippiversary! One year post-op
Yesterday I had the year-on orthopaedics appointment. Prepared to spend the usual 3-4 hours in the Manchester Royal Infirmary, the orthopaedics department was unusually quiet and I was in and out of there within 45 minutes! At least, I would have been, had I not got the time of the appointment wrong and mistakenly arrived an hour earlier.
It was a little disappointing that I did not get to see the surgeon who did my hip replacement, as both my physiotherapist and I wanted his personal opinion on whether I am ready to start building up towards running. Everyone has different views on how you should go about recovery and the level of activity you should embark on, opinion differs even amongst surgeons. I got the usual talk on thinking of the hip as a pair o…

It's been a year to the day that two weeks into twenty-five, I got a full hip replacement, courtesy of the UK's ever fantastic National Health Service (NHS). Before I start rambling, I would like to take a moment to emphasise just how must I appreciate the NHS. Even beyond the hip, I owe my life and sanity to the NHS and will never forget it.

This is essentially an update for anyone who cares, because I get asked about the ol' hip a lot by friends and family. For the most part, these concerned friends and family tell me off for how I treat it or the decisions I make, whether or not I should be doing a particular activity, whether I do enough physiotherapy or not, ... Sometimes they are correct, of course, I can overdo things. However, I thought I might explain why I do these things and demonstrate that I think about my actions a lot mo…

Anyone who knows me or has seen me walking in recent years will be aware that I have longterm problems with one of my hips. In February just gone, I went home to Spain and was met at Barcelona airport by my brother. On the drive to my parents' house, Calloway asked exactly what was wrong with my hip, which had been freshly replaced 2 months prior. I started with "Well, you know what they did to my hip when I was a baby, right?"
"Not exactly, no..." he replied.

A lot of people ask about my hip, so I decided to use the 6-month-versary of my shiny new titanium hip as an excuse for a completely self-indulgent post about what was wrong with my hip to begin with and why I needed a replacement two weeks into my 25th year (and an excuse to show off my scar and some x-rays, look away now if it embarrasses you to see x-rays of my pelvis).

Yes, it has been a tough year for the world. We've lost iconic and talented artists and public figures, the UK has lost its min–, I mean, Europe, and the US has voted for a hate-mongering orange baffoon called fart to be their next president.

Much of the West despairs for the ideological murder that has occurred. When many of us thought things were getting better and we were all learning to accept each other, we've been hit in the face with a barage of hate. Europe swings to the right, the US follows suit. The warming global climate continues to melt icecaps and exacerbate poverty in Africa, ISIS continues to ravage the Middle East, refugees continue to flood into peaceful neighbouring countries – only to be met with reluctance and disdain.

However, the inundation of bad news and the intolerable coverage of the US presidential "race", means that many of us may have missed some of the good things that have happened this year.

PhD student studying the ecological genetics of Caribbean seagrass at Manchester Metropolitan University. Following graduating with a first class BSc(Hons) in Zoology from the University of Manchester, I worked as a research technician for over two years. I am broadly interested in tropical biology, ecology, biogeography, and palaeobiology.

About the blog

This blog contains snippets from my year living in the Ecuadorian Amazona, including camera-trapping mammals, climbing trees, and counting critters in bromeliads; as well as notes on evolution, conservation, and any other biological topic that sparks my interest. I mostly aim to make these topics accessible to general audiences, so the non-science-enthusiast can find them as interesting as I do!